Austin Dillon: Full Send into the Playoffs

Cook Out 400: Austin Dillon won the Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway on Sunday evening and locked himself into the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. The win, Dillon's first since the Summer Daytona race in 2022, did not come without a lot of controversary in Austin's approach to snagging the checkered flag in overtime. While the win salvages the season for the 3 car and RCR, it may come at a massive price come the weekly penalty report. Unless the win is stripped, however, I am confident that AD and his team will have no regrets in walking away from Richmond with the trophy on Sunday evening.

The race was anticlimactic for the for the first 398 laps. Then all hell broke loose. For some reason, Ricky Stenhouse Jr decided to clean out Ryan Preece as Austin Dillon was coming to the white flag. Intentional or accidental nobody seems to know, and all I know is Stenhouse cleaned out Preece for nothing. Anyway. Prior to that, Austin Dillon, who had a great car all weekend, had chased down and passed Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin. AD was setting sail and on his way to a well earned and impressive victory. But the late race caution sets up an overtime and before anything else had happened you just knew something wild and/or dumb was bound to happen. And that proved to be true a few laps later.

The 3 car was able to get off pit road first, which honestly surprised me a little with the 11 car being lightning fast on pit stops and having the first stall. So, at this point, I am thinking as long as AD nails the restart, he should be okay and set sail to victory lane. Still winning and still earning it with no drama or chaos or controversary. A win that is not good for the bubble drivers, but decent for the sport, great for AD and RCR, and allows NASCAR and NBC to really hype up the playoff cutline even more so as we get into the last three races of the regular season. But alas, the optimism was short lived. I had an inclination that we were in for a chaotic finish no matter what, then AD chose the inside. I was skeptical and my first thought was "He's going to run Joey up into the wall, piss off Joey, then have to be flawless to hold off DH with momentum and aggression to win another race at his home track." Well that was also short lived as Joey had a perfect restart, AD did not fence him, and Logano looked poised to steal the win. Which, would have been a bummer in my fandom world, but not the worst thing that could happen. But again, that was short lived and did not happen to end the race.

I was in Chaos Corner, in turn 4 at Richmond, and as soon as Joey slowed up to make turns 3 and 4 I noticed that AD was not going to slow up until he hit the 22. Definitely an overly aggressive move, but one I felt was fair to win the race. This was, likely, AD's last shot at a win this regular season. Sure, maybe Daytona, but I would not have picked AD to win Daytona. So, AD's full send into spinning Logano, while insanely aggressive, did not upset me in the slightest. But then the exit of turn 4 happened. And I have been torn since (except in the immediate aftermath - more on that in a minute) about whether that move was fair or foul. Even being objective, in the moment, I did not think anything of it as foul. But then I saw replays, listened to a ton of driver interviews, read through what felt like thousands of opinions on Twitter, and (at the writing of this) listened to several podcasts and shows from SiriusXM NASCAR radio. And I have come to this final culmination:

1. It was a dirty move

2. I would have done the same thing if I was in AD's shoes

3. Denny should be pissed

4. Logano can be mad I guess, but I have seen him make bonehead moves for less and for more. So, I, personally, think he should pipe down.

5. Doesn't matter what comes out of this, you're opinion, my opinion, and NASCAR's handling of the situation, will piss off large percentages of the industry and fans.

What we can all take away from this is this fact: people are engaging with NASCAR, its sponsors, and the industry as a whole to talk about the finish of Sunday's race. I have had friends who never pay attention to NASCAR ask me about it, I had friends at the race on Sunday for their first time pepper me with questions about the ending from the checkered flag falling to all the way back home, NASCAR is being talked about on networks and platforms that rarely talk about NASCAR. These are good things. Sure, some will think its a circus in some capacity, some might think we're white trash aggressive rednecks, and some may become fans. Some of those we may win over, some we may not, sometimes those things mentioned above are true, most times they are not. Either way, more eyes on the sport are not a bad thing. With all that being said, I do expect (and think it is fair) that NASCAR will hand down some sort of penalty to AD and the 3 car for what they did to Hamlin; I expect Logano to be fined for his post-race pit road stupidity, and I expect some rules to be changed effective immediately to ensure these things do not become common place. Although it will happen again, we will be having this conversation again one day and we will come to some similar conclusion again at that time.

Now, the race before all hell broke loose: it was mid. I do like the option (soft) tires. That added more to the race than I expected. I am optimistic that the option tire will return to future races in some capacity (hopefully as the permanent tire for short tracks and road races). It was not the most entertaining, but it was great by Richmond standards with the NextGen car. And one of the better short track races overall we have had with the NextGen car. I hope NASCAR and Goodyear were able to learn something to continue to improve the product moving forward.

This race will go down as a favorite of mine. I had the most fun I have ever had at a race. I went to the race with my wife, Carly, my Dad (Ernie) and Stepmom (Becky), my best friends Ryan, Camryn, Zach, and Howard to celebrate my 30th birthday that's coming up this week. And what can I say: we picked a good one. My wife went above and beyond, my friends showed up and showed out, my Dad and Stepmom through us the perfect tailgate party. We partied hard, we met some drivers, we got as much free stuff as we could get, we got some souvenirs, we loaded up on $1 Zyn's for Camryn's boyfriend, and we saw what will (love it or hate it) go down as an unforgettable finish in NASCAR history. And, for me, a lifelong Earnhardt fan, I got to see the 3 car go to victory lane in person. It may not have been an Earnhardt behind the wheel, but it was the RCR 3 car and that's good enough for me. So, thanks for that Austin Dillon! The most important part was: we had fun.

Now we look forward to Michigan International Speedway this upcoming weekend. The trucks folks are enjoying the weekend off so we have the Xfinity cars back on track to kick off the weekend on Saturday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. EST on USA for the Cabo Wabo 250. The Cup Series is back on Sunday afternoon at 2:30 p.m. EST on USA for the FireKeepers Casino 400.

Michigan Weekend Picks: Cup = Brad Keselowski

Xfinity = Sheldon Creed

Truck = Off Week

Header Photo: Logan Whitton/Getty Images